Industrial and commercial firms frequently require the use of industrial solutions, including cleaning solutions, disinfectant solutions and solvents for various purposes. In hospitals, for example, disinfectant solutions are often used on floors and other surfaces to assure a clean environment. Traditional technology for disbursing and handling these industrial solutions typically involves shipping the solution in bulk to the facility requiring the solution, and measuring out quantities of the solution for each use required. This system is disadvantageous in that it requires the shipping and storing of a large amount of bulky, heavy fluid. Alternatively, concentrated chemical sources can be shipped in smaller portions, but the end users are responsible for handling and diluting the chemicals, which are expensive, and, if handled, could be dangerous.
Advances in the field of disbursing solutions have lead to the use of concentrates dispensed from a central location for dilution and use in various locations within an industrial or commercial facility. The concentrates can be either in a liquid or a solid form. The use of concentrates is an improvement over shipping fully diluted solutions, which require large storage units and take up valuable space in a hospital or factory, for example. In large industrial and commercial facilities a concentrate dispensing system would therefore require either multiple dispensing locations or repeated trips over large distances to return to the dispensing location for refilling individual dispensing containers.
The use of such a dispensing system also potentially places the responsibility of dispensing the materials on untrained personnel. Further, it then becomes the user's responsibility to know which chemicals can be mixed together and in which proportions. Leaving such choices to the discretion of a user creates the opportunity for the improper and potentially dangerous combination of chemicals, the waste of expensive chemicals or the theft thereof. Additionally, in the food service and pharmaceutical industries, the dispensing of accurate amounts of ingredients is essential to quality control and inventory management.
The use of a chemical mixing and dispensing station is known, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,137 to Decker et al. The apparatus includes a blending unit having a manifold, a plurality of chemical inlet ports, a water inlet port, and an outlet port. A plurality of pumps and valves are connected with the chemical inlet ports. The outlet port is connected to dispensing outlets for dispensing the chemical solutions into a container. The apparatus also uses an electronic control unit to operate the system at a pre-selected volume, in sequential combination and control the concentration of chemicals.
It would be advantageous if a system could be developed for more simply handling, dispensing and diluting concentrated materials. Such a system would preferably allow the user of the concentrated materials to avoid touching or contacting the concentrate.